Distressed?

So apparently, grunge is in. What do you guys think? I've always been a fan, just never got around to experimenting with it. This is my first go at it. I'm going to start offering this type of look, especially for my seniors. Check out Jeff:

Flying Solo: T&R Single Parent Scholarships

Hi all, long time no update. Well, 10 days since my last post. That's not too bad. I've been out on vacation in Steamboat Springs, as well as my home town, Cañon City. However, I did work a few days to wrap up this logo and design work. It's for a new scholarship program within the University of Colorado; it's called Flying Solo: T&R Single Parent Scholarships. The work entailed a design of two logos, one for the Flying Solo Scholarship and one for the T&R Fund, a web site, an informational post card and poster, and lots of PDF conversions.

I love when a creative vision become a reality. I had a couple ideas for each logo and when I finally got them down on the screen, here's what they looked like:




For the Flying Solo logo, we wound up deciding on the design featured below. There is a lot of background to the logo such as the colors are those of the CU system and the bird is representative of the donors' name.


To create the final T&R Fund logo, I had my clients sign their first initials or rather draw how they envisioned the logo. I traced their handwriting in Illustrator and developed a very personal logo:


I'm really looking forward to some green grass and leaves as photography will be picking up. This is kind of a slow season for outdoor pictures, however the design never ends. The shoot with my assistant, Jesie, and her boyfriend was postponed until this Saturday. I can't wait for it! They're chemistry is going to be incredible and will make for beautiful images I'm sure. :) Stay tuned!

"One Day I'll Fly Away"

Ah.. the fun you can have with reflectors. :)Photo by Amon of Striking Images by Amon.

Calvin Says it Best

My absolute favorite comic is Calvin and Hobbes. (And actually, that's not how my cat, Calvin, was named. When he was a baby, he loved nothing more than playing with my balled up Calvin Klein socks.) Anywho, Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes, is perhaps the wisest kid I know. He and I are on the SAME page regarding the creativity thing:

Captivated by the Light

Though I have no idea how we made it there in one piece, Jesie and I did attend this photography seminar last night, called Captivated by the Light with photographer, Ed Pierce. Three wrong turns, 11 miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic, and a visit from AAA later, we finally made it to the conference in Denver. And somehow we managed to be right on time and get decent seats! There were about 700 photographers there from Colorado. Talk about intimidating. 700 brilliant minds and 1400 creative eyes, not to mention 700 competitors.

We learned a ton of lighting tips and tricks, but honestly, the whole thing was pretty focused on selling us gadgets. We did, however, meet some great photographers from the Colorado Springs photography Meet Up group. My buddy, Ethan, who is a part of the Meet Up group and a past co-worker of mine, is an incredible photographer. He says he's just learning... whatever. Check out his Flickr. Ethan's going to be tagging along with Jesie and I at a few weddings this summer. He wants to witness wedding photography in action and is hoping to build his wedding and portrait portfolio.

I hope everyone is well. Often times, I tell you to go do something nice for yourself, but this time, do something nice for someone else. After a long, hectic week, it's easy to find yourself wanting to spoil yourself. I'm all about the random acts of kindness, so I encourage you to do something nice for someone else after their long, hectic week.

More wedding consultations this weekend and photo shoots this weekend. Actually, I'm shooting Jesie and her boyfriend on Sunday! Totally looking forward to capturing their chemistry. My vision includes some grungy alleys, grungy clothes, and lots of blue and black tones in the image.

Have an awesome weekend.

God Loves High Quality Photos

Just take a listen... It's just shy of two minutes. (And I apologize for some of my typing in the recording!)



I heard this in the middle of a 45-minute long Pod Cast from New Life Church's, theMILL. The sermon is by Glen Packiam. You know, I spend so much time on my computer working and listening to music that I'm starting to get sick of all 2,000 songs on my computer. So I decided to start listening to things that might actually teach me something. There are SO many kinds of Pod Casts out there. I had no idea!

This particular clip happens to touch upon something Jesie and I have been working at implementing into René Tate Graphic Design and Photography. We really want to "give everything to God" but couldn't QUITE put our fingers on what exactly that might entail. While we had a pretty good idea, this solidifies what we had been discussing.

Photoshop 101 & Wedding Consultation

Man, what a long day yesterday was! Up at 5:30 AM to get ready for day long Intro to Photoshop class I was teaching on behalf of Walsworth Publishing Company. The class was opened up to middle and high school teachers across Colorado Springs. We had a great time and I think everyone really learned a lot! I'm sure they were totally overloaded with information, but towards the end of class we had "play time" where the students implemented all that they learned. Below is some of their work. I was really pleased with how everyone was progressing in just a couple of hours!

We covered all sorts of stuff in 6 hours...

• making text look like it's on fire
• creating collages out of multiple photos
• layer masks - this was a huge learning. we used this is so many ways yesterday
• marquees
• cutting out subjects from a background using marquee tools, extract tool, etc.
  
• layer style properties
• text
  
• filters
• layers in general

It was very much a jam packed day. From the way everyone was talking, it sounds like a series of these Photoshop classes are in order. I'll keep ya posted... :)

The first image is Denise's, and the second is Debbie's.


After the Photoshop class, I hopped in my car, picked up Jesie, and we headed to Westminster, north of Denver, to meet with a potential bride, Stephanie, and her mother. We talked for a solid hour and had a great time! Stephanie and Kyle's wedding sounds so gorgeous. She's a woman after my own heart: a fall wedding AND brown and champagne bridesmaid dresses. (Brown is by far my favorite color. :) Kinda weird, I know.)

My church is in dire need of some photos for their website, so that's where I'm headed now. Will post some later.

Ciao!

WPJA Acceptance!

After applying over two months ago to the Wedding Photo Journalist Association, I finally decided YESTERDAY that I wasn't accepted. The requirements are quite stringent and they said if I didn't hear from them, then I didn't get in. Well. I spoke too soon. Cause at 7:13 AM I received this email:

Hi René,

We are happy to inform you that after having reviewed your web site and image portfolio, we agree you meet the WPJA membership requirements. Congratulations! We look forward to having you as a member. Your listing(s) will be published on the WPJA web site.

Our Membership Services department will be contacting you shortly via e-mail with all the details.

Thank you for your patience while waiting for a response to your application. The WPJA has been reviewing a high number of new applicants as well as implementing a portfolio review process for renewing members (something we introduced this year). We are also deep into the latest contest...results should be live on the site later today.

Sincerely,
David Roberts
WPJA

By the way, the WPJA "is a professional organization composed of photojournalists and wedding photographers from around the world. What sets our members apart in the industry is their candid, documentary approach – a distinctly artistic vision toward wedding photography." — WPJA.com.

God is great, that's all I have to say. Perhaps I'll blog more later. But it's amazing what happens when you just have faith and seek HIM. This week just keeps getting better and better!!

I'm off to the gym now. Have a wonderful day! Do something nice for yourself. I plan on buying a new outfit for this Photoshop seminar I'm teaching on Saturday.

Ciao.

Does your cat lay like this?

Calvin likes to hang out with me in the mornin' while I drink my coffee and watch the Today Show.

Though he gets kind of bored...

Uncontainable (Is that even a word?!)

Ok, I've gotta get this off of my chest... Man, where do I even begin? I just looked at the clock.. it's 10:53 PM on a Saturday night. [A Saturday night, mind you..] I've been sitting in front of my MacBook Pro for about 4 hours... I started off studying for a marketing research exam, but I've spent the last 3.75 hours perusing wedding photography websites. This happens all the time.... I ride this roller coaster of emotions...

First, I experience incredible bliss when I flip through extraordinary wedding photography. I mean, it's SO good that you scratch your head thinking, "This can't be real!"
Second, I marvel at the technical ability of these photographers. INCREDIBLE. I wonder how these people can get such powerful images of SPLIT second moments shooting at 1.0 and get the precise area of the pupil of the eye in focus. I find it difficult to call myself a photographer when I see their work.
Next, I experience this extreme, overpowering determination to be one of THE most recognized photographers in the U.S. And this is the part that gets me... I start dreaming and wishing and planning and vigirously penning in my little black Moleskine journal. It's as if my passion is uncontainble, it's just LEAPING out of me. I feel like I'm going to explode. Listen to me... sheesh. You would think I'm an artist or something..... Seriously though, it takes everything inside me to say, "René, slow down, you're still young! You're not that far behind them. Patience is a virtue. Think how long these people have been in the business! Imagine where YOU'LL be when you're their age." "Patience is a virtue." I need to get that tattooed on my forehead. You know, there is just SO much information out there that I am totally oblivious to. Don't get me wrong, I'm educated; I read, I take classes and attend seminars, but it's not enough. I need to do these things more. I need to shoot more. I need to spend more time with my nose in books and magazines and working with other photographers. I just don't... have... the... time... Many of you know, I'm a full time college student. I get so aggravated because I have to spend time studying the regions of Antarctica. Last week, I memorized 98 places in Europe, only to be tested on 10 of them.. 98! That was about 2 hours staring at an atlas. 2 hours when I could have been shooting. Trust me, I'm counting down the days until graduation so I can put 100% of my time into my business. I'd say now it's about a 40/60 split. 60% of my time being spent on business.. 40 on school. Well, if you really want to get to the short and skinny of it, deduct about 10% for yoga and the gym, 5% for playing with Calvin, 5% cooking (hah, more like 1), 20% of my time sleeping. Listen to me, I'm rambling... Anyway, the point is: photography.. I don't know what it is about it, but I can't get enough of it.
And lastly... after all the excitement of planning for the future, as Austin Powers would say, "I'm spent." I get so emotionally drained after viewing these web sites and resources.. But it's good for me. It puts the pressure on to be better, every day and every shoot.

*sigh*

I feel better now.

Every moment is an opportunity to learn, grown, and influence others. I say it all the time. While I'm not totally thrilled about the whole college thing, I am thankful for being there. I make the most of it. I learn a lot. I get good grades. But I'd rather be photographing.... (Now, is that even a word??)

Rosebud's Announcements

So I gotta give a little shout out to my girl, Leslie. Er, Rosebud, I should say. Eh, Leslie is good... She's a graphic designer based out of San Jose, Cali. Been a long time friend of mine. In fact, she was a graphic designer before "graphic designing" was cool. She's a fellow LeAnn Rimes fan as well. (She and I are pretty much fanatics...) But anyhow, Les just opened a greeting card/announcement business specializing in beautiful custom 5x7 photo cards for any occasion, including weddings, births, graduations, party invitations, and more. You must check her out.

She's very affordable, professional, classy, and super creative; Even I, who can do this myself, use her for my party invites!

Rosebud's Announcements Website